What is more legitimate than the fourth centenary of Shakespeare's death in 1616, is an album of melodies whose texts or subjects are taken from the inexhaustible treasure chest that is the work of the Stratford bard: Of legend - Ophelia, Desdemona, Shylock -, famous tirades, without forgetting his unforgettable sonnets, for four centuries that composers seize them with eagerness. The mezzo Isabelle Druet and her pianist Anne Le Bozec have chosen a few great hits (Schubert, Fauré, Schumann, Brahms, Sibelius), but also several works by musicians less often tackled such as Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Korngold or Gurney whose production Is far, far from being negligible. Druet plays with her magnificent vocal range ranging from murmuring to explosion, from joy to despair, all in several languages of which she seems to master the pronunciations with great agility.

A legend in his lifetime for his interpretations of Beethoven, Herbert von Karajan recorded a large swathe of the composer's oeuvre. Here, Karajan conducts the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, with violin soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter.